Cook like the stars with 'The Dead Celebrity Cookbook'

Tuesday

Thanks to Frank DeCaro, the signature recipes of these stars and scores more live on in “The Dead Celebrity Cookbook: A Resurrection of Recipes from 145 Stars of Stage and Screen.”

What do Lucille Ball, Elizabeth Taylor and Patrick Swayze have in common?

They’re all dead, of course. But did you know they all made killer chicken dishes?

Thanks to Frank DeCaro, the signature recipes of these stars and scores more live on in “The Dead Celebrity Cookbook: A Resurrection of Recipes from 145 Stars of Stage and Screen.”

DeCaro is known as the former flamboyant and funny movie critic on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” and he hosts his own comedy-infused Sirius XM radio show. For decades, the 49-year-old’s hobby has been collecting celebrity recipes wherever he can find them, including vintage magazines from yard sales, out-of-print biographies from eBay and old product pamphlets from flea markets.

A few years back, the idea hit: Why not a celebrity cookbook? One with a special theme, that is.

“The celebrities did the work for me and dropped dead,” DeCaro says.

We caught up with the amusing author in L.A. last week, while he was in town taping a guest spot on ABC’s “Cougar Town.”

Q. Recipes of dead celebs. Was it a hard sell?

A. A lot of people didn’t get the idea at first. But I think of it as a history lesson. Part of the reason I wanted to do it is because at the radio show, the interns are all about 20. I’ll mention an older star, and they have no idea who I’m talking about. I tell them, ‘If Lady Gaga can know who Liberace is, so can you.’ It’s important to me that we pass along our pop-culture history.

Q. Sadly, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Patrick Swayze made the book. Who was the last addition?

A. Peter Falk. I already had the chapter written on TV detectives, and then when Peter Falk died last year, people told me you can’t do a TV detective chapter without Peter Falk. So we got his pork chop recipe in right before we went to print.

Q. I adored Gilda Radner. Making her Dutch apple cake would make me feel a personal connection to her. That’s, obviously, the idea of the book?

A. Yes. It’s like when I find a recipe in a drawer in my mom’s handwriting. It feels like you’re a little bit closer.

Q. Many of the celebs are superstars. Others are television stars from shows like “The Waltons,” “The Golden Girls,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” and “Fantasy Island.” It’s cool to see what these people cooked as their favorite dish. As you say in the book, it humanizes them, and that, “in the kitchen, they were just like us.”

A. Back then was a very different time. It’s not like it is now where anyone with a cellphone is a gossip columnist. Then, you just didn’t have the access to stars. You waited until you heard someone was doing a week of shows on “Mike Douglas.” And there was this glamorous person –– there they were in an apron chopping up something. If they were good at it, it was fun. If not, they were so glamorous they didn’t need to get it right. The book gives you a glimpse of their lives, and it brings you right back when you were a fan.

Q. Any negative feedback?

A. Only one. From a character actress who said, “Bea Arthur was not just a dead celebrity, she was my friend.” I said, “If you read the book, you would see that (the entry is) a love letter to Bea Arthur.” Still, she thought it was highly offensive and tasteless.

Q. Your favorite recipe?

A. Liberace’s Sticky Buns. They are incredibly delicious and more fun than a refrigerated crescent roll should have in their lives. One time, I made 24 and ate nine before they were cool enough to handle.

Q. A few — not many — of the recipes are definitely vintage and, well, sound horrible. Like lobster mouse from Agnes Moorehead (Endora on “Bewitched”).

A. I’m not sure all the styles of eating should be revived, but many really are a blast from the past. The nice thing is, you can tweak it, do whatever you want. They’re dead. Paula Deen might come to your house and smack you around for messing with her recipe ­­–– I’m not sure she would, but she could. None of these stars will.

Q. Other recipes are obviously products of their era.

A. Oh, definitely. Back then, canned goods were the promise of the future. Some of these recipes may not be the stuff of Alice Waters, but they will make you feel warm on a cold night. Like Harriet Nelson’s chicken bake with three kinds of canned soup with butter and cream. How good could this be? One taste, and I’m 12 years old again. The rice soaks up all the creamy goodness. Eat it, and just hope there is a defibrillator nearby.

Q. Will there be a “Dead Celebrity: Part 2?”

A. Coming up this year, I’m doing a “Dead Celebrity” Christmas cookbook. We don’t have the official title yet. Maybe something like “Recipes from Christmas Spirits.” It will be all dead celebrities who are related to Christmas, like Bing Cosby, Boris Karloff.

Q. So, a spot on a TV show, and off to Disney for the day. Sounds exciting.

A. Yeah, some smart aleck told me to take my seatbelt extender for the teacup ride.

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